1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process of searching for an object performed by an information processing apparatus configured to manage document information.
2. Description of the Related Art
A document information management system is known that is capable of storing a large number of pieces of document information in a storage device and allowing a large number of users to access document information via a terminal device and to edit the document information by operating the terminal device.
In such a system, the right to access or edit document information stored in the storage device is controlled separately for each user.
In such a system, there is a need to modify document information stored in the storage device so that contents of document information disclosed to users are changed depending on users.
For example, employees (users) in a sales section are allowed to access information in terms of sales or profit, but employees (users) in other sections are not allowed.
Another example of access control is that numeric data associated with management of a company is allowed to be accessed by managers or executives but is not allowed for other general employees.
In a technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-171979, when a page of document information including a plurality of pages is displayed, if the page has a blank area, then a sentence or a figure present in a following page is automatically moved up into the blank area, and a resultant rearranged page is displayed.
In the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-171979, the layout is controlled by using links between containers into which sentences, figures, etc. flow.
To provide capabilities such as those described above desired by users, it is necessary to control displaying of parts of document information (hereinafter, such parts of document information will be referred to as objects) stored in the storage device, depending on user properties. However, if a particular object in document information is not displayed, a non-displayed area (blank area) is created, and this can cause resultant document information including the blank area to have an unattractive layout.
In the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-171979, when a particular container is vacant, the layout is automatically changed such that this container is reduced and containers located before and after the vacant container are connected together.
When the layout is adjusted in terms of a blank area created as a result of deleting an object, if the layout adjustment is performed taking into account the consistency of meanings of objects, then the resultant document information provided to users can be more useful.